Why Producers Fail

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. This is the podcast for independent insurance agency leaders to raise their level of thinking, to challenge the status quo, and to ultimately become best version possible leaders who lead best version possible agencies. Hi, my name is Brent Kelly. I am your host. And before I get into today's topic, which, by the way, A little bit of a cliffhanger here. We're gonna talk today about why producers fail. And guess what? It may not be what you think it is. So we're gonna talk about why producers fail. Before I get into the topic today, the very relevant and important topic, I mentioned best version possible leaders leading best version possible agencies. Well, guess what? Here's a shameless plug. I'm holding up my book right now, Best Version Possible. This is co-authored by Roger Sitkins. The subtitle is The Blueprint for Achieving Even Greater Profit And Impact in Your Agency with Less Effort. You can find it on Amazon. You can find it on Audible. Best yet, you can go to sitkins.com/bvp, get a copy of your book, 40 years of practical wisdom. There's no fluff in that book, all for about $10. Pretty good deal, right? So go check it out. Um, again, you could look up Best Version Possible and, uh, take a look at the book. Uh, we've got some great feedback on that. Now I mentioned today I'll be leading a solo podcast on why producers fail. Also, just so you know, as we move forward this podcast. I have some incredible interviews coming up. I'm excited to talk to agency leaders, other influencers that I know will be very relevant to you, the agency leader, to help you again, raise the game, raise the bar of your agency. And as I mentioned today, the topic is this: why do producers fail? And here's the little hidden secret I want to get into. Why producers fail and it's not talent. Not talent. What do you mean, Brent? Well, we're We're going to talk about what that means specifically today. But the question that most agency leaders have asked at some point, whether it's a handful of producers, maybe it's a couple of producers, maybe it's one producer, but it's this: why aren't my producers producing? It's a fair question. And in many agencies, the assumption typically is that the producer lacks discipline, lacks talent, or lacks motivation. And by the way, that certainly can be true. But I will tell you, after working with hundreds of agencies, thousands of producers in our different programs, I've come to a different conclusion. Now, by the way, it doesn't mean that it isn't one of those things that I mentioned. It can be part of it. But I think that most producers don't fail primarily because of talent. They fail because the system around them makes success difficult. Or more challenging. If we want producers to become best version possible producers, we have to, as leaders, create an environment that makes that actually possible. Now, I'm probably gonna say this 3, 4, 5, 6 times. This isn't the be-all end-all. What I mean by that is, yes, there is certainly producer responsibility in their own behaviors. In fact, we talk to producers about building their Me Inc., right? That their company, Me Inc., is part of We Inc., the agency. But I do want to spend some time for you as an agency leader to think about what parts do you own? Where are your responsibilities? Doesn't mean that it all falls on you, but we're going to talk today about creating an environment of success. Now, I could give a lot of examples of environment, but let's keep this really simple. We're getting closer to the springtime. Maybe when this is released, it will be closer to springtime, but You think about the environment of a plant, right? When you're going to plant something in the spring, what does it need? Well, it needs good soil. It needs water. It needs sunlight. It might be a really good seed, but if we don't give it the right soil for it to be nurtured, right, the water to help it grow, and of course the sunlight, well, it's not going to grow and develop. So I want you to think about that as an analogy in terms of your producers. And I'm a big believer in this, and I share this many times in this podcast about controlling the controllables. There are certain things that you can't control as an agency leader or a sales leader, if that's your role within your agency. But there are certain things that you can control. So when you start to put the focus on, hey, what could I do? What could we do to foster a greater environment of success for our producers? Well, these are things that we can control. So I'll say this again as the core principle, the core idea of today's topic. Producers don't fail because they lack ability. They fail because the agency environment prevents them from becoming, again, their best version possible. And I was thinking about some examples of this, and I love my sports analogies. I say it all the time, but I can think of so many situations where a player, maybe they got traded or signed with a new team. and suddenly their performance changed. I can think about that good or bad, right? They were doing really well and all of a sudden they went over to this team and things changed, better or worse. Now, is there personal accountability around that? Of course. But I also have to ask myself the question, what was different about the culture? What was different about the environment? Now, I had the fortune in my past, it's been many years ago now, of being part of two different insurance agencies. Now, from the outside, I've seen hundreds of insurance agencies. They all have different cultures. In fact, my joke is that the best thing about an independent insurance agency is that they're independent. You can kind of do what you want. You can create the model you want. The hardest thing about being independent is you're independent. You can do what you want. You can create the model you want. So there are a lot of different examples and ideas. I can tell you personally of the two agencies that I worked for, they were vastly different environment and culture. And I'm not even here to say, you know, this was great and this was bad, although I probably could say a few things. It's just that I can tell you I was the same person. Yes, I was growing. Yes, I was developing. Yes, I was learning new skills. Yes, I was at different ages. All that is true, but just the culture, the environment made a substantial difference in how I was going to grow. So again, let's put the ownership for a minute here or 2 or 10, however long I go here, back to you as the agency leader. What are the things that you can control? What does it look like? So I'm going to talk about 5 specific areas. So 5 specific areas that we see where agencies can help improve the environment, the cultures, the systems to help foster the best environment of growth for your producers. And here's one thing I do know. It's really hard for an agency to grow if their producers aren't producing. See, aren't you glad you came to the Agent Leader Podcast to hear wisdom just like that? So let me go through the 5. We'll start with number 1, and this one's, this one's going to cover a lot of bases. And certainly these 5 areas are going to overlap in different areas, which is fine. But number 1 is this. Lack of, and I'm going to use air quotes here, real training and development. In fact, maybe I would change the word to this: lack of intentional training and development. I've said on this podcast many times, I say in our programs, especially our leadership programs, many times that the number one role and responsibility of an insurance agency leader, and you probably have many roles, But the number one is to grow and develop your number one asset, which is your people. So I think about producers, the same holds true, right? Oftentimes producers will get hired or brought into an agency. And again, there's a whole different discussion of our hiring process. That's not the purpose of this podcast, but we've now made the decision to bring a producer in. And I often ask an insurance agency leader, what is your growth and development plan for this said person? What do you mean? What is the 90-day plan? The 1-year plan? The 2-year plan? How do we know they're achieving success? What behaviors do we need to see? What does it look like? What mentorship are we fostering? What are they learning? Right now, I will tell you some of the great agencies, yes, they've got some ideas and there's different things they do, which is awesome. But for the most part, most agencies go, well, that's a good question. I'm not quite sure. Now, maybe they get hooked up with the right person and helps them foster growth, right? That might happen, but maybe they don't. So to me, one of the things that I think about behind, besides behaviors is skill development. What skills are we consistently fostering in our training and development program? Whether it's how we ask better questions, how we position, how we present value, right? All these things are critically important. Are we getting feedback? Are we practicing? What is the practice schedule? Right now, I mean, I know I go on my soapbox on this conversation, but just to think about that for a second, that we oftentimes bring in producers. Now, maybe they're experienced from another agency. Maybe they're brand new. Maybe they know insurance. Maybe they don't. Right? So there's a lot of different variables. I get that. But we're not actually having these producers practice certain skills in front of us or with peers or getting video so that we can help monitor. And more importantly than monitor is to uplevel, improve, coach. Develop. That's where success comes from. You don't get better by talking about stuff. It's part of it. You get better by doing the stuff. So getting our producers to actively engage, whether they're out having appointments or not, what are the things that we need to practice and do? And here's my key takeaway on this is that many agencies expect professional sales results without professional sales training. It's just the bottom line. So I'm gonna ask you on this, what is your training and development program or system or process for your number one asset, your people, in this case for your producers, right? So that's number one. Number two, what else do we see? It's some form of a lack of a selling system or a sales process. What we talk about is, is the selling system or process, is it named? Does it stand for something? Is it repeatable? Meaning that yes, there's flexibility within that, different producers, different niches, different ways, fine. But it's repeatable that there's a, a model we can coach and train around. Is it effective? You know, often what we find in working with agencies initially is that they go, yeah, we've got a sales process. We just have about 20 of them. Depends on who you're talking to. That's really hard to repeat that. Replicate that. So those are things that we want to be talking about, that we're being effective and efficient and intentional with a lack of a— without having a sales process. What does it look like? Right? Because when there's not a selling system, what do producers do? Well, they default to whatever they know, the best they know at that time. And again, how do you coach and train around no system or process? I don't know. Here's what I did. Here's what she did. Here's what he did. Do your best. And oftentimes you find producers that will default to quoting and reacting, or as we say, quoting and floating, versus starting to understand we've gotta lead and advise through a process or a system. And unfortunately, what happens oftentimes is this, a few things. Number one is we get started and maybe we get some quick wins cuz we're just being aggressive and we're out there, which is great, but it's really hard to sustain. It's really hard to replicate. It's really hard to grow from. We're all things to all people, and there's no defined system or process that we can grow on. So continue to keep that in mind. Number 2, again, lack of a selling system. I would ask you as an agency leader, what is your current selling system or process? What does it look like? How do you react to that? Which leads me to number 3. This is something we definitely have talked about on this podcast, but I want to go back. Why do producers fail? And it's probably not what? It's probably not their talent. Number 3 is lack of productivity. They're just simply not in the game enough. And as we talk about this at the Sitkins Group and our Sitkins Network, we talk about this as the green zone. There are 4 things that a producer should be doing 80% of the time in the green zone. They should be having sales conversations. They should be building, developing relationships with key people. That includes future ideal clients, centers of influence, and of course, clients. They should be leading continuations in a continuation process. And if you're not sure what that means, that's our version of a proactive intentional renewal, not reactive, proactive. And then number 4 is pipeline development. Those 4 things are what producers should be doing 80% of the week. If they're not doing one of those 4 things, what are they doing? Probably service stuff, probably reactive stuff, probably things that they're not best suited for. Certainly things that aren't generating revenue, right? So producers find themselves spending time on service work, internal meetings, administrative tasks, problem solving. And then we often find that service becomes not just what we're trapped behind as a producer, but we also can hide behind it. Because it's accepted. It's okay. We haven't really thought about it. Yeah, well, all producers do service. Do they? Because I will tell you, in working with agencies, the highest performing agencies, the highest performing producers, the highest performing service professionals that work with producers are very clear on their roles and their goals and what it looks like. And again, this is a culture. What is the expectation? What is the model? On the mirror next to me, I'm not going to grab it, but I have a mirror in my office right here as I'm recording this podcast. One of our long-term private clients, I love what they put. They put this mirror in every office. And at the very top it said, is this your best version possible? Great reminder, right? A personal reminder. It's a great culture hit. The bottom of the mirror says, producers, if it is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM, you should not be reading this mirror. Now that was started by conversations. Of course, we led that in talking about best version possible and the producer's schedule and what it looks like and lack of interruptions and all that kind of stuff. But that became a dynamic of this is who we are. This is our culture. This is our standard. If we're going to foster an environment to help producers succeed and not fail, we've got to get them in the game as much as possible. And also, as much as I've already talked about lack of training and development, and again, that needs to be done through low-risk practice, right? In the office, we're doing role plays, we're submitting videos, we're working on a craft. Being in the game more also allows you to practice more. Now we still want you to practice before you get in the game, but now you get to practice more in the game. What do you think is going to foster more growth and development? Sitting in your office, reacting to emails, or having more and more conversations, getting out in the market, getting out in the world, having these, again, these difficult or challenging or certainly important conversations with people that allow you to grow. Awesome. Gets you a little bit uncomfortable, which is also a great catalyst for growth. All right. Number 4, this coincides the last one, but I wanna spend some more time on it. Number 4 that we see why producers fail and it's typically not talent is because there's a lack of alignment in the agency. Now I just talked about producers taking service people's jobs, but what happens internally in many agencies and with producers is that we are extremely reactive, not just with our clients, but reactive in our communication with our internal team. And when producers and service teams are not aligned, producers get pulled back into those operational issues, those service issues. So one of the things that we believe in and establish in working with agencies is there should be a proactive, intentional weekly meeting. We talk about some of the key areas, key items of focus so that from that moment on, we can get to do the things we need to do. Versus interrupting each other on the things that maybe we should have already talked about. So without alignment, producers get dragged out of the green zone and they get back into this red zone, which is a big hairy mess. And here's a bigger point than all of this. Yes, there's productivity. Yes, there's results. And that's what it's really about at the end of the day. But there's a culture piece to this as well. Right? There's a culture piece to this. Again, not only safety and being comfortable, But the fact is that oftentimes producers are devaluing the service team's role and what they do. And I can tell you, and there's probably a few exceptions to this, but most cases when we talk to service teams and we say, do you like it when the producers come in and do your job, right? Or when producers come in and take things from you, or do you like it when producers come in and get involved in service? Their answer is usually no, not really. So this isn't just a producer issue. This is also an issue with what we see internally as a culture. And this comes back to you as an agency leader, get to set the tone, the standard, the environment, the culture of your agency. All right. Number 5, last one. So we've talked about these first 4. Why do producers fail and not talent? Well, because oftentimes They are working with the wrong clients. They're working with the wrong clients. Now, I am not going to sit here and do 10 minutes on the power of 80/20, although I love to because it is so well known and so poorly executed in so many agencies that we initially talked to that it is a difference maker. So why do so many producers get caught in traps? Why do so many producers get frustrated? Why do so many producers get burnout? Why do so many producers feel like they're not really very valuable and they're a commodity in transaction? Well, in many cases, it's because they're working with the wrong clients. Now, the best agencies begin to set standards that we have targets, we have ideal, we have future ideal clients only, and we begin to define that based on prior history and where we're going. There's a lot there I can unpack. Bottom line is, do you know who a future ideal client is demographically? Do you know that? I don't know. Psychologically, do you know that? I don't know. What do they think? What do they want? These things are all important as we're defining future ideal clients. Do they have standards on minimum? Because if you can write any and every account and there's no reason not to, hey, every account's a good account, do what you gotta do, that fosters the idea of A, we're not that valuable, and B, our time isn't that important. And C, here's the biggest part, you will run out of the one thing you can't get back, which is time. And one of the reasons we see producers plateau way too early, you could do this for a while. You could be a newer producer coming to agency and you could be a busy little bee and you could be quoting and floating everywhere you go and you can be writing accounts. Whether you keep them or not, I'm just writing accounts. I'm just moving. I'm shaking. I'm playing in the traffic. I'm getting my feet wet. I'm doing things I gotta do. And all of a sudden, boom, 3 years later, you're like, woo, I am out of time. I am stuck. I'm too busy. Versus saying, let's look at the book on an ongoing basis and identify who's the best fit client moving forward. What fits the profile I'm looking for? Do I have a minimum standard based on some of the metrics? And are there some accounts at some point, if not now, that I may need to trade down to someone else, to a different department of the agency, maybe outsource different stuff so I continue to grow up. Right? You gotta give up to go up in many cases. And what happens with agencies that struggle with producers? Why are my producers not working? Why aren't, why are they failing? Well, again, maybe it's not talent. Maybe it's capacity. Why is this producer not growing? Maybe they're just running out of capacity. Again, it could be a number of those things. It could be the green zone, red zone. It could be they have way too many clients that pay them way too little money. Now, if you're working with a service team or service partner, maybe they get out of capacity, which also hinders the producer in different ways because now they are getting involved more in service. So there's a lot of areas that we need to think about and unpack in this area. But again, just ask yourself as an agency leader, are we allowing our producers to work? Or do we have standards to work towards the right fit clients? What are they? Who are they? How do we acquire them? And are there areas where our producers' books are too big with too many clients paying us too little money and we need to find ways to free that up? Which, by the way, you can usually give up if you've been doing this for a while, some clients in the bottom end of your book that account for way less than 1% of your revenue while adding clients on the top that help multiply your results. And ultimately, what is it about? It's freedom. We talk about this in terms of freedom for an agency, freedom for a producer. Now, let me say one more time on this podcast. Does this mean what I shared today, that producers shouldn't have accountability in their own success? No, that's not what I'm saying. And we foster a model of producers need to think like an owner, me, Inc., right? And they need to control their controllables, but you as an agency leader need to control Your controllables. And just think about this. Again, I know this is a silly analogy or simple analogy for sure. I got plants behind me that maybe I don't always do a good job, but if you're going to grow a plant this spring and it needs good water and good soil and good sunlight to foster an environment of growth, what does that environment of growth look like at your agency for your producers? How can you help make that growth environment better, empower them, educate them, have accountability standards, whatever it is. Again, we could talk about lots of things, but what is the right level environment or environment of growth to help your producers become their best version possible? I'll tell you, one of the ways to get your agency to be a best version possible agency is to foster an environment of best version possible producers. Now, I shared a lot of things here today. I always want to have an ask for you as an agency leader. You know, one of the things that we provide is that we provide outside perspective for agencies who are looking to take the next level. And I say this all the time, we don't work with average agencies. We work with good, really good, sometimes great agencies that go, man, we're doing really well, but there's another level. We're looking for a community. We're looking for our environment of growth. We're looking for some coaching where we can be challenged in different ways, maybe a different perspective. So if that's you, we're very selective in who we talk to. But if you're one of the few agencies that go, you know what, I know there's a way better version of us waiting for us to arrive, we'd love to have that initial conversation with you. Go to sitkins.com/bookacall. And we'd love to have a very initial, no-pressure conversation just to learn about you, what's the frustration, and determine is there a fit moving forward. And if there's not a fit, we'll say, hey, thank you. Great to talk with you. We wish you the best and we can provide our resources and tools for you just like this podcast. But if there is a fit, we'll do an assessment. There's no cost to that. We'll provide an overview and a plan. And at that point, you can make a decision. Do we want and need to take that next step with coaches and community and a different perspective to take us to a level that maybe we couldn't achieve on our own? I know for me, there's always been outside coaching, outside perspective that's helped mold and shape me to take me to another level, to ask me questions that I haven't been asked, provide resources that I haven't been provided with. And again, just to provide a community and a foster of this is the place that I want to be. So here's my closing challenge for you. Agency leaders should stop asking, why aren't my producers performing? It might be a fair question, but I don't think it's the best question. A better question is this: have we created an environment where producers can reach their best version possible. Because when the right people operate with the right system, with the right focus and the right clients, production oftentimes will take care of itself. Hey, thanks for being an Agent Leader Podcast listener. I wish you, your agency, your team, wish you all the best in your success. Thanks so much. Take care. Hey there, Agent Leader. Brent Kelly here. Want to take just a few seconds to remind you that now is the time to create your true best version possible agency. If you go to sitkins.com/bookacall, sitkins.com/bookacall, we'll get to know more about your agency, conduct an agency assessment, and provide your agency with a customized plan to help you avoid some of the pitfalls, frustrations, challenges, and roadblocks to get your agency to true ultimate freedom. And become its best version possible. It all starts by going to sitkins.com/bookacall.